The owner of the Elizabeth J said the captain of his charter sportfishing boat attempted to radio the Nina Marie shortly before the sport fishing boat collided with the commercial vessel.
Southampton resident Jeff Kraus, who was not on the boat at the time of the accident, said his vessel was traveling at about 3 knots and fishing for scallops when the captain spotted the Nina Marie on the boat’s radar approaching at roughly 20 knots.
“We have right of way, number one,” Kraus told The Southampton Press on Monday. “And two, the captain said he spotted the sporty on the radar and made calls to try to notify him but [the other boat] never responded to the radio calls.”
At the time of the accident, visibility was about a quarter of a nautical mile, according to the Coast Guard.
